Letters: Medicine as a right, not a privilege; Who controls the GOP?

Medicine as a right, not a privilege

The president has relaxed patent protection for the COVID vaccine so that at no cost the formula can be available to the whole world.

Yet it is not clear that the united world markets will agree — so strong is the profit motive and we all sometimes like closing our fists and saying “mine.”

But I take heart. For at a greater time where the life crests in love, we open our fists and say, “yours,” and mean it with total commitment.

Here with clear mind we can see medicine not as a privilege but as a right just because we are all complete in each other as brothers.

We have all heard of the Good Samaritan. When he healed he didn’t see tribe or race, let alone profit. That gesture is big enough to unite the world in joy.

It is good the president is giving the vaccine to the world.

Who controls the GOP?

Republican turnout in recent presidential elections is attributed, in part, to the loyalty of inspired evangelical Christians. But in 1988 Ronald Reagan’s vice president saw trouble ahead.

Recounted by Jon Meacham in his 2015 biography, “Destiny and Power — The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush,” Bush was campaigning in the presidential primary in Kingsport, Tennessee. He went to shake the hand of a woman who supported one of the other presidential primary aspirants, televangelist Pat Robertson. Stony-faced, she refused to shake his hand.

Bush told her it was just a political campaign and “we’ll be together when it’s over.” Glaring, she still would not shake his hand.

The incident reminded Bush of when he first ran for Congress in Texas. He was unloved by John Birch Society people, who believed, among other conspiracy theories, that President Eisenhower was a Communist agent. Bush told his taped diary that night:

“ ... This staring, glaring ugly — there’s something terrible about those who carry it to extremes. They’re scary. They’re there for spooky, extraordinary right-winged reasons. They don’t care about Party. They don’t care about anything. They’re the excesses. They could be Nazis, they could be Communists, they could be whatever. In this case, they’re religious fanatics and they’re spooky. They will destroy this party if they’re permitted to take over ...”

In 2021, the party is controlled by the con man Donald Trump and all sorts of believers in the Big Lie, from Centre County to San Diego.

Justice for migrants

State College Friends Meeting is concerned for the treatment of migrants. Migration has been a part of human activity from before recorded history. As Quakers we believe that there is that of God in every person, so we feel a spiritual connection with migrants.

We find that immigrants enrich our lives and our communities. We reject government policies that encourage division and fear of others instead of connection and compassion. We acknowledge that our country’s policies have played a part in colonial interventions, in creating economic insecurity, and in accelerating climate change, all of which have contributed to conditions that have spurred migratory movements in the past and today. The use of violence as a means of controlling migrating people does not ensure our own security but makes everyone less secure.

Justice for migrants, like justice for people of color, people of differing sexual orientation, and people of different races and religions, requires that all be given equal access to the necessities of life. Policies that mistreat and dehumanize migrants who cross arbitrary political boundaries, are unacceptable to us. We acknowledge that in the history of our country, barring Native Americans and people brought to our shores against their will, we are all either migrants or the children of migrants. Our humanity requires that we recognize the humanity of others, including migrants, and treat them accordingly.